Risk factors for nonsuicidal self‐injury in Japanese college students: The moderating role of mood regulation expectancies

Self‐injurious behavior is increasing among college students, and is common in both psychiatric and nonclinical populations. People's engaging in self‐injury is associated with childhood maltreatment, poor negative mood regulation expectancies, and depression. During times of distress, maltreated children without healthy coping strategies tend to have impairment in mood regulation, which contributes to engaging in self‐injury. This study investigated differences between nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) and non‐self‐injury groups in history of childhood maltreatment, negative mood regulation expectancies, and depression in a sample of Japanese college students. We also assessed risk factors for self‐injurious behavior, including mood regulation expectancies as a moderator of the relationship between childhood maltreatment and NSSI. Participants were 313 undergraduate students, who completed anonymous self‐report questionnaires—Deliberate Self‐Harm Inventory, Child Abuse and Trauma Scale, Negative Mood Regulation Scale, and short version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies–Depression Scale. Ten percent (n = 31) of all participants had injured themselves. Consistent with past literature, participants with self‐injury history reported more severe childhood maltreatment, poorer mood regulation expectancies, and more depression, compared to non‐self‐injurers. Frequency of NSSI positively correlated with childhood maltreatment and depression, and negatively correlated with negative mood regulation expectancies. Regression analysis revealed that stronger expectancies for negative mood regulation interacted with maltreatment to predict self‐injury: More maltreatment was associated with more self‐injury, particularly among those with weaker expectancies. Results suggested childhood maltreatment, low expectancies for negative mood regulation, and depression predicted self‐injury. Consistent with our moderation hypothesis, strong expectancies for negative mood regulation buffered the effects of childhood maltreatment, reducing the risk for self‐injury.     

Psychopathy versus sociopathy: Why the distinction has become crucial

The terms psychopath and sociopath are often used interchangeably, but there appears to be some hesitance by researchers in the many disciplines comprising criminology to continue this trend. The problem seems to be that as research has advanced in studies of psychopathy, which is the more common of the two terms, psychopathy now commands a much more specific definition, and this is what alienates it from its estranged cousin, sociopathy. As language can serve to hinder or confound research, it is crucial that these terms take their proper place in brain science. Here, I present how the two terms are currently used in neuroscience and psychology, and suggest how research in sociopathy should progress.     

Habituality and Undecidability: A Comparison of Merleau-Ponty and Derrida on the Decision

This essay examines the relationship that obtains between Merleau-Ponty and Derrida through exploring an interesting point of dissension in their respective accounts of decision-making. Merleau-Ponty's early philosophy emphasizes the body-subject's tendency to seek an equilibrium with the world (by acquiring skills and establishing what he refers to as 'intentional arcs'), and towards deciding in an embodied and habitual manner that minimizes any confrontation with what might be termed a decision-making aporia. On the other hand, in his later writings, Derrida frequently points towards a constitutive 'undecidability' involved in decision-making. He insists that a decision, if it is genuinely to be a decision, must involve a leap beyond all prior preparations, and this ensures that an aporia surrounds any attempt to decide. One must always decide without any equilibrium or stability, and yet these are precisely the things that Merleau-Ponty claims that our body moves us towards. Most of this essay will explore the significance of this disparity, and it will be argued that many of Merleau-Ponty's insights challenge the Derridean conception of the undecidability involved in decision-making. This becomes most obvious when comparing the decision-making processes of those expert in a particular field to those who are merely competent (for example chess), and this essay will attempt to establish that the aporia that Derrida discerns can actually be seen to constrict.     

Visually Controlled Locomotion: Its Dependence on Optic Flow,Three-Dimensional Space Perception,and Cognition

Gibson (1958/this issue) and his followers have emphasized the role of optic flow in the control of locomotion. In recent years much research has been devoted to the visual control of aiming and braking, mainly in connection with terrestrial locomotion. The goal of this article is to broaden the topic empirically and theoretically. At the empirical level, we argue that there are a number of visually controlled maneuvers that need to be addressed for their own sake, for they involve more than can be learned from research on aiming and braking. At the theoretical level, we argue that optic flow needs to be supplemented by other explanatory primitives, including the actor's perception of three-dimensional spatial layout and the actor's cognitive representations of the spatial envelope and plant dynamics of his or her body or vehicle.     

Information giving and involvement in treatment decisions: Is more really better? Psychological effects and relation with adherence

Objectives : The aim of this study is to improve our understanding of the ways in which a medical consultation style relates to satisfaction and adherence.

Design : Participants completed questionnaires about preferred and perceived consultation styles; psychological variables such as satisfaction, anxiety and depression; and questions about taking medication. Questionnaires were completed prior to the consultation, immediately after, three months later and one year later. Doctors also completed a scale on completion of the consultation. The decisions in question related to women seeking advice about Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and decisions about pain management.

Results : Patients expressed preferences for information about the treatment options and for active involvement in the decision process. The extent to which patients perceived themselves as having received information about the treatment options was a particularly consistent predictor of satisfaction. The extent to which patients perceived themselves as having been prepared for the side effects of HRT was a consistent predictor of anxiety.

Conclusions : Perceptions of the amount of information received about medical options, including information preparing individuals for potential side effects of medication, appears to be more important to satisfaction and anxiety, than actual involvement in the decision.     

The physical environment and child development: An international review

A growing body of research in the United States and Western Europe documents significant effects of the physical environment (toxins, pollutants, noise, crowding, chaos, and housing, school and neighborhood quality) on children and adolescents' cognitive and socioemotional development. Much less is known about these relations in other contexts, particularly the global South. We thus briefly review the evidence for relations between child development and the physical environment in Western contexts, and discuss some of the known mechanisms behind these relations. We then provide a more extensive review of the research to date outside of Western contexts, with a specific emphasis on research in the global South. Where the research is limited, we highlight relevant data documenting the physical environment conditions experienced by children, and make recommendations for future work. In these recommendations, we highlight the limitations of employing research methodologies developed in Western contexts (Ferguson & Lee, 2013). Finally, we propose a holistic, multidisciplinary, and multilevel approach based on Bronfenbrenner's (1979) bioecological model to better understand and reduce the aversive effects of multiple environmental risk factors on the cognitive and socioemotional development of children across the globe.     

Distress of Japanese parents of children with intellectual disabilities: Correlations with age of parent and negative mood regulation expectancies

Parents caring for a child with an intellectual disability (ID) face many challenges. Few studies in Japan have focused on parents of children with an ID. We investigated the psychological factors that might help these parents maintain well‐being, in particular negative mood regulation expectancies (NMRE). NMRE are beliefs about one's ability to diminish one's negative moods. Research has shown NMRE to buffer the effects of stress: stronger NMRE are associated with less symptoms of distress, including depression and anxiety. We examined the associations of NMRE, coping, and severity of the child's ID with parental distress (somatization, depression, and anxiety) among 106 Japanese parents (mean age = 56.7 years) caring for at least one child with an ID. The age of the parent was negatively associated with parental distress, particularly anxiety. NMRE were also negatively related to distress, independent of the age of the parent and coping. The severity of the child's ID was not related to coping or parental distress. Stronger beliefs that they could control their negative moods and being older seemed to protect parents of an ID child from symptoms of distress.     

The Reliability and Variability of the Tests Used to Measure the Accommodative Response at the Near Point

Piers, G., &; Singer, M. B. Shame and Guilt. Springfield, Ill.: Thomas, 1953. Pp. 86. Reviewed by Stanleyr Osenman.     

A Cross-Cultural Psychometric Evaluation of the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale

The Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS) is a widely used measure of athletic identity (Brewer & Cornelius, 2001 Brewer, B. W. and Cornelius, A. E. 2001. Norms and factorial invariance of the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale. Academic Athletic Journal, 15: 103–113.  [Google Scholar]). Although the factor structure of the AIMS has been tested repeatedly in an American population, its psychometric properties remain largely unexplored cross-culturally. Therefore, the purposes of the study were to further test the psychometric properties of the abbreviated 7-item AIMS in an American population, while also exploring its utility cross-culturally. Results revealed the AIMS to be a psychometrically sound measure of athletic identity for male contact and collision athletes in both American and English-speaking Hong Kong Chinese populations.